Glazing is a technique used within oil painting where transparent layers of paint are layered upon earlier layers of (usually opaque) paint that have already dried. Glazing is an amazing technique used within oil painting and understanding and using glazing effectively will really give you that "oil painting" feeling. When glazing an oil painting it is possible to give your painting a feeling of luminosity that is impossible to achieve otherwise. Glazing was also used by the old masters to create colours that were hard to find or impossibly expensive, for example, blue can be glazed over an underpainting of a red gown to create a royal purple garment.

Just a note, if you haven't read my post on whites and on how to read paint labels perhaps do so first, as it will make the following technical terms easier to understand.

Let's start by discussing mediums and pigments:

A medium is usually a mixture of solvent and oil, kept separate from your oil paint and mixed in when needed to give the paint the desired consistency. Usually this translates to a 50/50 mixture of linseed oil and artists turpentine. There are however a multitude of recipes. Some good guidelines however are to never use more than 50% solvent (turps - as it will literally dissolve the pigments in your paint) and to never use vegetable oil but to keep to refined oils such as linseed, poppy seed, walnut and spike oil, which tend to yellow less over time than others. Another tip is to never use Damar Varnish in your medium, if the painting is ever restored, or even if you would want to rework the painting, you'd have to strip down the varnish and so doing disintegrate the painting.

All mediums are considered to be "fat", while opaque pigments without medium are considered "lean". Fat is always over lean. When starting a painting it is crucially important to have a lean opaque underpainting, adding in more medium as you approach the top most layers. Adding lean over fat, instead of fat over lean will result in cracking as topmost layers will dry before bottom layers. Adding in more medium on top of leaner layers will also result in your oil soaking through the lean layers, which is a good thing.

Easy Formula: 1/2 Refined Linseed oil, 1/2 Turpentine (vary quantities according to viscosity that you want) This is pretty quick drying and good for sketching and painting fast. However, it's not great for layers of delicate color - too much solvent. 2/3 oil, 1/3 solvent is much better for that purpose.

When glazing, instead of just adding small quantities of medium to your paint, you will deliberately either add pure colour to a small pot of medium or mix in a lot of medium with your paint on your palette to create a very runny paint. This is then applied over any dry underpainting that you already have. Depending on what colours you add to your medium to make a glaze, the effects will vary greatly. Glazing is a great tool to manipulate the warm and cool areas of your painting. Generally speaking, diluting a transparent pigment with a medium will result in a warmer glaze and is called a Traditional Glaze. When using a colour that is lighter than the underlayer and is only semi-transparent, the glaze will cool the painting and is called a Velatura. This type of glaze usually contains white.

Pigments, is what your paint is made from. To be able to glaze effectively it is important to know if the pigment you are using is transparent, semi-transparent or opaque, and also how strong the pigment is. It is also important to use a high quality paint for glazing, as many cheaper paints do not have the high transparency levels that their more expensive counterparts do. Sap Green is a great example of this.

Maimeri Puro, Avignon Orange & Sennelier Indigo Hue

The following handy list, which I also found on Art Babel, describes the effects that different colours will have when glazing a painting with them.

Glazing is not a once off process but a continual journey of watching what the glaze does, and then finding out if it should be partially ( or completely!) wiped off, or if it needs a thicker glaze, or perhaps deciding that another colour would work better.

Remember that any transparent or semitransparent colour can be used, and in the end it is important to experiment (and fail!) to be able to know what works best for you and the effect that you would like to create on each unique painting.

I'm standing infront of a painting by Collin Chillag at the MEAM museum in Barcelona. I love the way Chillag playfully mixes his colours ontop of his paintings and makes mini colour charts for each work.

Moving from drawing to painting usually means an explosion of colour for the amateur painter. While this is often exciting, it can also result in a lot of "mud" on your canvas. This post seeks to equip the artist with the skills needed to be able to work well with colour

“White may be said to represent light, without which no colour can be seen; yellow the earth; green, water; blue, air; red, fire; and black – black is for total darkness.”

-Leonardo da Vinci

Black is often seen as a 'no-no' within oil painting, or at least as a colour that should be used sparingly. However as with any colour or tube of paint, its all about understanding the underlying pigment and what its' most effective use is.

Yes. Use black. Black exists in Nature, much to the chagrin of quite a few instructors. You just don’t want to use it to grey colors for skin tones, shadows, etc. Then you really will get muddy. If you want to make black exciting, mix other transparent colors into it. You’ll get a fabulous range of blacks. But you have to learn to use black. You learn through patience and practice. Look for places to use it judiciously.

For the artist, an understanding of the correct use of black is vital, especially as black often leads to a dead or dull area within a painting. For the Old Masters however, black and other darks covered large parts of their final works.

The Man with the Golden Helmet, Rembrandt, 1650, Oil on Canvas

As with other colours and pigments one will find various names and types of blacks on manufacturers’ products. This can describe how it was made or represent its history. This history will determine what the specific paint brings to the canvas.

Ivory Black

Ivory Black is historically also known as Bone Black, and was originally made by the Romans who burned bones to gain access to this pigment. Later on, as better pigments became more sought after, pure Ivory was used instead of bones. True Ivory Black is more intense and has a higher carbon content than Bone Black. Examples of Ivory Black can be found in the deep velvety backgrounds of Rembrandt's paintings. Ivory Black can still be purchased, in very small quantities, at a costly price. However, the ivory used is harvested from animals that naturally pass away. Here's a link to buying bone black pigment. It is important to note that both pigments are slow drying within oil and should never be used in an underpainting. The pigment is also soft and brittle when used as oil paint. Also note that these pigments are considered to be toxic.

Mars Black

Originates from the mineral Iron oxide. The name Mars was deducted from Mars being the alchemical name for iron. Mars black was developed in the early 20th century and is the only black pigment that is considered non-toxic. It also dries successfully, which immediately sets Mars Black apart from the other blacks available, and can thus be used in underpainting. It is considered to be a hard flexible oil pigment, as well as dense and opaque with a warm brown undertone.

Lamp Black

“…Grind it for a year it would be blacker and better”, Cennino d'Andrea Cennini wrote concerning what he considered to be the “perfect” black - Lamp Black. In essence it is the soot-residue left over from burning oils and mixed into paint, thought to originate from the development of lamps. Originally Lamp Black was made from burning vegetable oils, nowadays tar, creosote, naphthalene, or other petroleum products are burnt to produce this pigment. Lamp Black can be found in all Egyptian murals and tomb decorations. It is however very slow drying, and should not be used on an underpainting. It is also a soft and brittle oil colour. Although lamp black was one of the first and most used blacks, the superiority of Mars Black makes Lamp Black a poor option.

Payne’s Grey

Payne's grey is a dark blue-grey colour used in painting. It is often used as a darkener in place of black. Payne's Grey was originally a mixture of iron blue, yellow ochre and crimson lake, Payne's grey now is often a mixture of blue (ultramarine or phthalocyanine) and black or of ultramarine and Sienna. The colour is named after William Payne, who painted watercolours in the late 18th century. The first recorded use of Payne’s grey as a colour name in English was in 1835.

As in everything: Experience will lead you towards the best choices for your project.

An artist can choose to have black on his palette or it can be mixed from other colours. The easiest recipe is to mix the primary colours, but other colours can also be mixed to create interesting darks with vibrant undertones.

Within the studio, I prefer not to use too much black as it often "deadens" areas on a canvas. I like to use Indigo or Raw Umber to add a dark area within a painting. Payne's Grey can also be used successfully.

Black, or any dark colour or mix is useful:

As a darkener to create a multitude of shades

As a creator of grey tints along with white

As an ideal pigment in brush drawing (especially in this case pure black)

In bringing character to paintings as each type of black brings with it different effects.

I hope this information inspires you to play a bit with the 'dark side'!

The array of whites available can quickly become confusing! This post shares information about various whites and what you need to keep in mind when choosing whites. it also includes links to other sites if you want to get more technical information and see photos of experiments in white.

Take the time to know your gear. An artist should be "paint literate" in terms of not only being able to recall paint by its name but also understanding the ingredients used and the differences between each.

Living in today's fast paced world of quick fixes and insta-gratification we hardly stop to think of the history of the objects we use, and the many sacrifices that have been made to provide us with utter convenience. Oil Paint, especially, has a dark and grim history. Preparing and grinding pigments for paint was not only a laborious task for any painter (If you've seen the movie Girl with the Pearl Earring you should recall this), but also toxic, gross and often involved animal cruelty.

Romantic ideas of the depressed artist painting into the early hours of the morning are often accompanied by an overwhelming olfactory sensation, of turpentine. Fortunately, the wonders of linseed oil and baby oil have been discovered. This is what my basic set-up for oil painting looks like:

Keep in mind firstly, that this is my colour choice (and all artists have different preferences even though they use the same basic colour principles), and then secondly that this post is more relevant for South-Africans living close to Jimnettes Art Shop

Recently I received a brief to paint for a client who loves very specific colours. I visited his home, taking note of the mood and colours thereof, but when I starting painting, I realised the overall feeling is going to be too 'cold' and decided to put down a wild, expressive, complementary colour layer down first...